Finished No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole. This is the second book in her Immortals After Dark paranormal romance series about vampires, Valkyries, and other magical creatures.

This one focuses on Kaderin the Cold Hearted, a Valkyrie who was granted her wish to feel no emotion after her sisters’ deaths, and Sebastian Wroth, the vampire who falls in love with her and makes her feel again. To be close to Kaderin, Sebastian enters a mystical scavanger hunt called the Hie alongside her. But they both want the prize — a magical key that lets the user travel back in time. Too bad only one of them can win it …

I’ve heard a lot of folks buzzing about this series, so I bought a couple of the books to read. I liked this one even more than the first book in the series, A Hunger Like No Other. Why? Mainly because of Kaderin. She was everything that I like in a female character – strong, tough, and a kick-ass warrior who can take care of herself just fine, thank you very much.

I also thought the plot was nicely balanced between the Hie contest and Kaderin and Sebastian’s developing romance. The contest also set up the next couple in the series and gave the reader more glimpses of the different types of creatures in the series. That’s hard to do without shortchanging the main couple’s romance, but Cole did it well in this book.

There was also a nice role reversal in this one. Because instead of being your usual alpha male vampire who is irresistable to the ladies, Sebastian’s large size has always made him feel clumsy, and he hasn’t had much luck with women in the past.

In fact, I really liked Sebastian’s shy character — until he decided that he was going to force Kaderin to, ahem, service him because he thought that she had wronged him. I know this is a fantasy book, and the world building makes it clear just how crazy Sebastian is to make Kaderin his. But still, I just never think that this kind of thing is sexy or attractive. It’s a pet peeve of mine. And what’s worse is that Kaderin was going to submit to him, until Sebastian changed his mind at the last minute.

But other than that, if you’re looking for a new paranormal romance series to try, you might want to consider this book. It’s got a lot of action and a lot of romance, which are always two of my favorite things. Thumbs up.

Up next: Runner by Thomas Perry.

Books in my TBR pile: About 20.